Follow Me by Angela Clarke
Genre; Crime
LIKE. SHARE. FOLLOW . . . DIE
The ‘Hashtag Murderer’ posts chilling cryptic clues online, pointing to their next target. Taunting the police. Enthralling the press. Capturing the public’s imagination.
But this is no virtual threat.
As the number of his followers rises, so does the body count.
Eight years ago two young girls did something unforgivable. Now ambitious police officer Nasreen and investigative journalist Freddie are thrown together again in a desperate struggle to catch this cunning, fame-crazed killer. But can they stay one step ahead of him? And can they escape their own past?
Time’s running out. Everyone is following the #Murderer. But what if he is following you?
ONLINE, NO ONE CAN HEAR YOU SCREAM …
My Thoughts:
If you’re here reading this blog then this book is going to interest you because you’re aware of the online community, the worlds that thrive in it, how we all interact and how, when circumstances are right, things can go horribly, horribly wrong. The online world is a melting pot of personalities and yet, for the most part, we thrive side by side. It’s when there is something to see, like car crash TV, that social media gets a life all of its own and this is explored here.
Clarke turns social media into a terrifyingly dark place. You won’t look at your accounts the same way again. Or, you will at least wonder who is on the other side of that screen you are talking to.
I was hooked and couldn’t stop turning the pages. It was compulsive.
With a memorable and unique protagonist, Follow Me comes at the crime novel from a slightly different angle with down on her luck, living on a sofa in London, journalist Freddie. She’s brilliant to read. She’s real. You know she’s out there. Mouldy plates and a pillow on a sofa, trying to make her way, trying to make it big. Well, not much comes bigger than this.
Clarke explores the phenomenon of social media celebrity while tapped into your fears of the unknown.
There’s a murderer out there and he’s hiding in plain sight. He’s telling the world all about it. You can follow him and watch. But you really don’t want him to follow you back…
Brilliant!
Follow Me is out in ebook format on 3rd December and out in paperback on 31st December. With thanks to the author and publisher for my copy.
This sounds absolutely frightening – not sure I want to read it, or I may be disappear completely from online life… The online poetry chat group in Ursula Poznanski’s Blind Birds was already a shock to the system!
The online world can be very scary, Rebecca, and I’m not surprised it’s the context for this one. It sounds very, very timely. And I do like believable characters. Glad you enjoyed this.
I was chatting with a policeman friend recently about how the police use social media to track criminals, after it came out that a guy had been arrested because the police had seen a certain vehicle on FB. The interesting thing he told me was they didn’t need to use any special tracking software, all they had to do was look. Appears criminals are social beings too, and they like to share just like the rest of us.
Very true. Everyone wants to stay connected and if they help the police when doing so then good for them! 😉
Sounds good Rebecca
It is. And I’m looking forward to future books 🙂